What  shall  be  done  with  the  People  of  Color  in  the 
Fnited  States! 


A  DISCOURSE 


DELIVERED    IX   THE 


FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH 


OP 


PENN  YAN,  NEW  YORK, 

November  2d,  1862. 


BY  REV.  FREDERICK, STARR,  JR., 

I'ASTOK  OF  TUB  CHUUCH 


ALBANY: 

WEED,    PARSONS    AND    COMPANY,    PRINTERS. 
18G2. 


'     C_ 


What  shall  be  done  with  the  People  of  Color  in  the 
United  States? 


A  DISCOURSE 


DELIVERED    IN   THE 


FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH 


OP 


PENN  YAN,  NEW  YORK, 


November  2d,  1862. 


BY  REV.  FREDERICK  STARR,  JR., 

PASTOR  OF  THB  CHURCH. 


ALBANY: 

WEED,    PARSONS    AND    COMPANY,    PRINTERS. 
1862. 


Bancroft  Ubnury 


PENN  YAN,  November  3d,  1862. 
Rev.  F.  STARR,  Jr.  : 

Dear  Sir  —  The  undersigned  having  listened  with  pleasure  to  the  able  dis- 
course delivered  by  you,  from  your  pulpit  on  the  2d  inst.,  and  believing  that 
the  circulation  of  it  among  the  people  at  this  time  would  do  much  good, 
would  respectfully  ask  of  you  a  copy  of  the  same  for  publication. 

We  are  very  respectfully  yours, 

HENRY  WELLES,          GUY  SHAW, 

C.  G.  JUDD,  WM.  C.  JOY, 
M.  BROWN,                    N.  R.  LONG, 

A.  V.  HARPENDING,  WILLIAM  STARK, 

F.  HOLMES,  J.  0.  WAKEMAN, 

CHAS.  N.  BURRILL,  S.  H.  WELLES*, 

E.  M.  WHITTAKER,  F.  M.  HAMMOND, 

LEANDER  REDDY,  JOHN  HATMAKER, 

D.  MORRIS,  ALVA  TAYLOR, 
D.  W.  ADAMS,  A.   ARNOLD. 


PENN  YAN,  November  4th,  1862. 
To  HENRY  WELLES,  C.  G.  JTJDD,  M.  BROWN,  A.  V.  HARPENDING,  and  others : 

Gentlemen  — Your  kind  letter,  requesting  for  publication  a  copy  of  my  dis- 
course last  Sabbath  morning,  has  been  received.  Sickness  in  my  congregation 
and  unavoidable  interruptions  compelled  me  to  write  the  greater  portion  of  the 
entire  sermon  in  a  few  hours,  not  permitting  me  even  a  second  reading.  You 
will,  therefore,  in  receiving  it  in  answer  to  your  request,  please  extend  to  some 
awkward  constructions  and  infelicitous  expressions  found  in  it,  a  leniency  of 
criticism,  which  under  other  circumstances  would  not  have  been  required. 

If  in  any  manner  the  publication  of  the  discourse  can  do  good  through  the 
community,  my  object  in  writing  and  delivering  the  sermon  will  be  more  fully 
obtained ;  I  cheerfully,  therefore,  place  the  discourse  itself  at  your  service. 
I  am  most  truly  and  respectfully  yours, 

FREDERICK  STARR,  Jr. 


Bancroft  Ubrtnt 

SERMON. 


Proverbs  xiv.  28 — "  IN  THE  MULTITUDE  OF  PEOPLE  is  THE  KINGS  HONOR,  BUT  IN  THB  WANT 

OF  PEOPLE  IS  THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  PRINCE." 

Question,— (Discussion   continued  from  last  Sabbath)— WHAT  is   TO  BE  DONE  WITH  THK 
BLACK  RACE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA?* 

WE  ARE  passing  as  individuals,  and  as  a  nation,  through 
the  greatest  and  darkest  crisis  the  earth  has  ever  beheld  ;  one 
where  the  most  gigantic  crime  that  can  be  committed  against 
man,  struggles  for  conquest,  against  the  highest  blessings  he 
can  enjoy  ;  wherein  the  noblest  nation  upon  the  globe,  with 
agonizing  exertions,  is  trying  to  save  its  bared  throat  from 
the  bloody  knife  in  the  hands  of  her  own  children  —  children 
nursed  from  her  own  bosom,  and  reared  by  her  with  excess 
of  all  tenderness  —  while  others  of  her  children  seek  to 
pinion  her  hands  and  stifle  her  cries,  that  the  diabolic  deed 
may  be  accomplished.  Rousing  suddenly  from  the  long 
cherished  belief  that  the  government  was  stable  as  the 
mountains,  that  the  principles  of  democracy  in  the  consti- 
tution were  loved  and  cherished  loyally  by  all,  we  see 
millions  tear  that  instrument,  refuse  to  be  bound  by  it,  and 
find  them  involving  all  the  loyal  in  war  and  carnage  for  doing 
things  as  directed  in  that  constitution,  and  attempting  to 
preserve  it  inviolate.  And  amid  the  roaring  of  the  cannons, 
the  clashing  of  arms,  and  the  groans  of  the  dying,  we  find 
others,  with  bland  faces  and  sleek  tongues,  justifying  them 
in  what  they  have  done,  and  still  others  threatening  by  means 

*  See  Appendix. 


of  the  army  of  the  constitution  to  depose  and  execute  the 
officers  and  executive  of  that  constitution,  and  forever  to  oblit- 
erate the  instrument  from  existence.  Earth  has  never  beheld 
so  much  of  treason,  where  all  should  be  loyalty  ;  so  much  of 
ambition,  where  all  should  be  humility ;  of  hate,  where  all 
should  have  been  love  ;  and  so  much  of  suffering  and  death, 
where  only  joy  and  peace  should  have  smiled.  In  this  world 
results  flow  from  causes,  and  occasions  stimulate  causes  and 
accelerate  results.  A  land  so  filled  with  woes  as  this,  to-day, 
must  have  about  it  some  cause  of  terrific  power,  some  occa- 
sion of  unwonted  significance. 

What  that  cause  is,  every  person  of  intelligence  distinctly 
understands.  It  is  the  presence  of  the  black  population  in 
these  United  States.  What  the  peculiar  occasion,  the  observ- 
ing Christian  supposes  this  :  That  the  time  has  come  when 
God  has  taken  into  his  own  hands  the  abolition  of  the  slavery 
of  a  Christian  people,  robbed  of  every  human  and  social  right 
of  which  man  could  deprive  them. 

The  cause  as  stated,  none  who  hear  me  will  deny.  Some 
may  deny  the  occasion  as  stated.  But  in  order  to  a  full 
understanding  of  a  question,  so  important  to  this  nation  and 
to  the  Afri co- Americans  —  What  shall  be  their  future  loca- 
tion and  situation  ?  —  an  investigation  into  the  questions  — 
How  came  they  here  ?  Why  have  they  occupied  that  situa- 
tion ?  How  do  they  now  obtain  their  freedom  ?  and  What 
influences  will  now  surround  them  ?  —  should  all  be  consi- 
dered. 

1.  The  people  of  the  infant  colonies  did  not  of  themselves 
introduce  slavery  or  desire  its  establishment.  The  great  majority 
of  them  were  poor,  dependent  upon  their  own  direct  labor 
for  subsistence,  they  desired  to  be  their  own  masters,  and 
to  be  paid  for  their  labor  the  highest  market  value.  To 
those  thus  dependent,  the  injustice  and  inhumanity  of  slavery 
came  home  with  intense  power.  Their  lands  were  not  large, 


their  funds  were  limited,  and  their  circumstances,  abilities, 
and  natural  repugnance  were  not  in  favor  of  its  introduction. 

2.  But  many  of  the  early  colonists  had  not  only  such  influ- 
ences  operating   upon    them,    but   their  education,    religious 

faith  and  conscience  made  them  refrain  from  slavery.  The 
Puritans,  who  had  just  gone  out  from  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
oppression,  with  the  motto  "  A  church  without  a  bishop ;  a 
state  without  a  king,"  could  not  tolerate  slavery.  The 
protestant  Hollanders,  who  settled  New  York,  found  in  their 
well-conned  bibles  no  scripture  which  made  it  their  duty,  or 
gave  them  the  privilege,  to  be  slaveholders.  And  William 
Penn  and  his  followers,  who  came  with  an  open  hand,  an 
open  heart,  and  an  open  Bible — men  who,  because  Christians, 
could  not  cheat  the  poor  Indian,  would  not  rob  the  poor 
African  ;  and,  even  yet,  after  250  years,  their  children  have 
not  learned  how.  But  in  all  communities  exist  those  of  con- 
tracted views,  dull  moral  perceptions,  feeble  consciences, 
strong  selfishness,  and  keen  greed  for  gain  —  open  subjects 
for  the  first  temptation  —  and  determined  in  their  own  minds 
beforehand  to  fall.  An  opportunity  soon  presented. 

3.  Slaves  were   imported   into   this   country  by   traders   and 
companies,  and  by  national  British  patronage.     In   1620,  the 
same  year  our  pilgrim  fathers  stepped  on  Plymouth  rock,  a 
Dutch  ship  landed  and  sold  at  Jamestown,  Virginia,  twenty 
slaves :  these  were  the  first  slaves  in  the  United  States.    The 
trade  once  commenced,  competition  between  buyers  and  im- 
porters sprang  up,  and  the  evil  began  to  spread,  until  it  was 
soon  found  scattered  along  the  whole  coast.     But  the  work 
of  supplying  slaves  to  this  country  was  not  left  wholly  to 
individual  enterprise.     Four  companies,  to  trade  in  slaves, 
were  chartered  by  the  English  government,  and  two  of  the 
kings  of  England!  were  members  of  two  of  those  companies. 
They  brought  many  slaves,  but  the  influences  we  have  men- 


8 

tioned  were  constantly  operating  to  keep  the  community 
from  becoming  demoralized,  so  much  so,  that  more  than  fifty 
years  had  passed  by  and  there  were  comparatively  few.  The 
opposition  was  such  that  several  of  the  colonies  petitioned 
the  English  government  to  prevent  their  further  importation. 
The  government  refused  to  grant  their  prayer,  being  influ- 
enced by  the  companies  by  whom  it  was  subsidized.  Slaves 
and  slavery  were  thus  forced  upon  an  unwilling  people,  and 
they  were  purchased  by  those  having  the  most  means  and  the 
least  moral  principle  ;  and  thus,  the  avarice  of  the  trader  and 
the  cupidity  of  the  buyer,  with  a  corrupted  distant  govern- 
ment, set  up  a  small  minority-,  in  the  democratic  colonies  of 
America,  as  a  privileged  class,  against  the  pecuniary  interest, 
the  natural  sentiment,  and  the  religious  convictions  of  the 
great  majority  of  the  citizens. 

4.  Slavery  thus  established  advanced  with  great  rapidity. 
In  1776,  when  the  United  States  declared  their  independence, 
there  were  in  the  colonies  600.000  slaves.  In  the  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty-six  years  intervening  between  the  landing  of 
the  first  twenty  slaves  at  Jamestown  and  the  Declaration  of 
our  Independence,  there  had  been  imported,  mostly  directly 
from  Africa,  about  330,000  ;  and  as  the  heaviest  part  of 
that  importation  had  taken  place  within  thirty  or  forty  pre- 
ceding years,  probably  250,000  of  the  600,000  were  sto- 
len and  forcibly  brought  from  Africa.  In  reference  to  moral 
questions,  the  strangest  inversions  of  logic  are  made  by  men 
to  act  as  conscience  plasters,  and  to  ward  off  both  human  and 
divine  truth.  We  are  continually  told  by  slaveholders  and 
their  admirers  that  they  are  not  responsible  for  the  slave  trade 
and  slavery  ;  that  they  bought  men  who  were  already  slaves, 
and  who  had  lost  their  rights  before.  Now,  surely,  no  slaver 
ever  fitted  out  a  ship,  exposed  himself  to  African  fevers,  and 
the  dangers  of  slave  ship  insurrections,  and  capture  as  a 
pirate,  without  the  knowledge  that  there  were  men  who  stood 


ready  to  buy  the  slaves,  at  prices  remunerating  his  cost  and 
labor,  at  the  rate  of  from  two  hundred  to  six  hundred  per 
cent.  The  piratical  slaver,  who  by  law  dies  at  the  yard-arm, 
is  not  the  principal  in  the  transaction  :  he  is  but  an  agent  — 
paid  for  his  services.  Neither  can  he  lay  off  his  crime  upon 
the  heathen  African  chief,  and  say  that  he  bought  a  man 
already  enslaved ;  for  the  chieftain  would  not  drive  his  cap- 
tives to  the  barracoons,  unless  he  expected  there  to  find  the 
trader,  and  receive  his  pay.  The  southern  slaveholder  is  the 
principal,  and  upon  his  soul  rests  the  blazing  dwellings,  the 
murdered  men,  the  bereaved  families  of  Africa ;  on  his  head 
rests  the  horrors  of  the  slave  barracoons,  the  woe  and  death 
of  the  passage,  the  loss  of  liberty  for  the  poor  slave  and  his 
long  line  of  posterity.  Were  there  no  slave  holder,  there 
would  be  no  barracoon,  no  slave  ship,  no  slave  pirate,  no 
human  auction  block,  no  unholy  usurpations  of  human  rights, 
and  no  slave.  Let  not  the  slaveholder  shelter  himself  behind 
the  brutalized  slave  factor,  the  pirate,  and  the  heathen  :  let  him 
stand  forth  :  he  is  the  principal :  his  desire  demanded,  and 
his  money  paid,  and  the  free  African  lay  panting  beneath  his 
foot  a  slave  :  and  the  three  were  but  his  agents  ;  and  in  the 
purchase  of  the  slave  he  assumes  all  the  cruelty,  crime  and 
outrage  perpetrated  upon  that  particular  slave,  and  a  general 
connivance  with  that  of  all  the  traffic. 

And  men  wrest  the  Scriptures,  and  if  they  are  so  good  for 
slavery,  they  may  have  a  little  virtue  for  freedom.  A  man, 
within  the  past  week,  in  this  village,  declared  to  me  that 
slavery  was  right,  because  Noah  prophesied  the  servitude  of 
the  children  of  the  son  of  Ham,  and  therefore  that  he,  if 
able,  would  buy  and  be  justified  in  holding  slaves.  It  is  a 
little  troublesome  to  see  just  how  he  would  hitch  the  pro- 
phecy upon  his  own  case.  He  must  first  prove  his  Shemitic 
genealogy,  then  the  Canaanitish  extraction  of  his  slave,  then 
must  by  the  prophecy  acknowledge  him  as  his  brother,  and 
then  by  some  little  point  should  indicate  the  wish  of  God 


10 

that  he  particularly,  4,200  after  the  prophecy,  when  the 
nationalities  and  descents  of  the  nations  have  become  a  little 
mixed,  should  hold  the  particular  man,  woman  or  child  as  his 
slave — a  problem  somewhat  difficult  of  solution. 

But  there  is  a  scripture  some  800  years  fresher  than  the 
other,  a  little  more  explicit,  a  little  more  active  in  its  essence, 
a  positive  command,  not  a  prophecy,  that  reads  thus :  "  And 
he  that  stealeth  a  man  and  selleth  him,  or  if  he  be  found  in 
his  hand,  he  shall  surely  be  put  to  death."  If  Noah  is  such 
good  authority  for  the  propriety  and  right  of  slavery  and  the 
slave  trade,  then  Moses  is  just  as  good,  and  a  little  better,  for 
the  capital  execution  of  all  slave  traders,  buyers  and  holders 
for  each  is  "particeps  totius  criminis"  a  partaker  of  the  whole 
crime. 

Such  then  was  the  state  of  the  colonies  containing  about 
3,000,000  inhabitants.  A  small  minority  held  in  their  hands 
as  chattels  one-twelfth  of  the  population,  actually  stolen 
from  Africa ;  and  another  one-tenth  of  the  people,  descend- 
ents  from  those  previously  so  stolen.  With  what  an  incubus 
did  that  infant  nation  start  into  being  !  with  what  small 
faith  could  they  pray  to  God  for  success,  in  their  war  for 
freedom,  when  holding  one-fifth  of  the  entire  population 
under  an  hundredfold  worse  despotism  and  oppression  than 
that  against  which  they  rose  ?  But  God  gave  them  his  bles- 
sing, not  became  he  approved  the  slavery,  but  in  spite  of  it. 

Slavery  has  made  rapid  strides  since  then.  The  first  census 
of  the  United  States  is  that  of  1790,  and  one  is  taken  every 
ten  years  dating  from  that  time,  and  the  increase  is  shown 
in  the  following  table : 

From  1790  to  1800  increase  195,160,  annual  increase  19,516 

«'  1800  to  1810  «  298,307  »«  "  29,830 

"  1810  to  1820        "  336,734  "  "  33,673 

«  1820  to  1830  «  460,945  »«  "  46,094 

"  1830  to  1840  "  478,313  "  "  47,831 

"  1840  to  1850  "  716,733  "  "  71,673 

"  1850  to  1860  "  747,912  "  "  74,791 


11 

Such  has  been  the  progress  of  slavery,  partly  by  the  direct 
importation,  mostly  by  natural  increase.  So  that  our  nation 
so  pompous,  so  boastful  of  our  freedom,  our  civilization  and 
our  religion,  has  stood  from  1850  to  1860  manufacturing 
slaves  at  this  rate,  in  ten  years  747,912,  in  each  year  74,791, 
in  each  day  205 ;  and  every  seven  minutes,  day  and  night 
through  all  that  period  one  new  slave  beyond  all  that  die, 
has  been  added  to  that  mass  of  down  trodden  and  debased 
creatures.  The  good  have  stood  aghast!  the  wise  have  pon- 
dered, and  the  benevolent  have  mourned,  for  they  could  see 
no  way  by  which  to  check  this  growing  crime,  and  this 
growing  shame. 

5.  The  founders  of  our  nation,  the  j ranters  of  our  constitution, 
did  not  contemplate  the  retention  of  slavery  by  this  country. 
Massachusetts,  then  embracing  the  State  of  Maine,  was 
the  only  State  without  slaves,  having  abolished  slavery 
with  the  adoption  of  her  new  constitution.  Vermont  had 
only  17.  The  other  States  all  held'  them  in  numbers  from 
160  upwards. 

The  men  who  made  the  constitution  were  the  men  who 
led  the  world  in  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade.  In  1776 
the  commencement  of  our  liberties,  the  old  colonial  congress 
forbade  the  further  importation  of  slaves.  N1788  such  efforts 
were  made  by  those  interested  in  the  importation  of  slaves, 
that  congress  was  prohibited  from  interdicting  the  traffic  until 
1S08.  The  commercial  States  of  the  north  were  in  some 
instances  more  zealous  to  continue  the  trade  than  some  of 
the  slave  States  themselves.  The  State  of  South  Carolina 
and  the  city  of  Charleston,  which  in  the  revolution  traitor- 
ously surrendered  to  England  and  swore  fealty  to  her;  which 
now  again  asks  a  Governor  General  and  a  despotic  protec- 
torate from  Europe;  a  State  twice  in  rebellion  against  its 
own  government,  showed  its  ignoble  and  sordid  nature  at  that 
time.  Seizing  upon  the  remaining  period  before  the  termina- 
tion of  the  slave  trade  in  1808,  "  Charleston  alone  in  the  four 


12 

years  of  1804-5-6  and  7  imported  39,075.  While  the  nobler 
State  of  Georgia,  by  her  own  enactment,  terminated  the 
slave  trade  in  1798,  ten  years  before  the  general  government. 
Thus  while  our  nation  led  all  the  modern  nations  in  the 
closing  of  the  slave  trade,  to  Georgia  belongs  the  honor  of 
having  anticipated  by  ten  years  the  action  of  our  nation. 
Let  men  who  would  now  reopen  the  slave  trade,  and  make 
slavery  the  corner-stone  of  a  new  government,  remember  that 
the  fathers  of  our  country  hated  slavery  and  sought  its  death. 
They  abolished  the  slave  trade ;  the?/  would  not  admit  the 
disgraceful  word  slave  into  the  constitution.  The  State  of 
Virginia  would  not  cede  to  the  United  States  the  northwest 
territory,  now  the  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Wisconsin 
and  Michigan,  without  the  express  stipulation,  in  the  words 
and  handwriting  of  the  immortal  Jefferson,  that  in  "  all  that 
territory  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  north  of  the  Ohio,  slavery 
and  involuntary  servitude,  except  for  the  commission  of  crime, 
whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted,  shall  be 
and  hereby  is  forever  prohibited."  The  United  States  accepted 
that  territory  upon  that  prohibition,  and  passing  it  in  the 
very  words  of  Jefferson,  made  those  five  noble  States  forever 
free.  That  was  the  great  ordinance  of  1787 !  and  is  the  true 
exponent  of  the  intentions  of  the  founders  of  this  republic, 
respecting  the  institution  of  slavery,  and  the  true  interpreter 
of  the  meaning  and  spirit  of  the  constitution.  They  killed 
the  slave  trade  to  stop  slavery  coming  from  abroad.  They 
refused  in  the  constitution  to  acknowledge  that  so  loathsome 
a  thing  existed  in  a  free  nation ;  and  they  took  every  foot  of 
land  then  belonging  to  the  general  government  and  forever 
prohibited  slavery  in  it. 

The  greatest  statesmen  of  the  constitution  spoke  and  wrote 
upon  the  institution  of  slavery,  condemning  it  as  inconsistent 
with  the  principles  of  the  declaration  and  the  constitution. 
They  were  called  in  those  days  by  a  term  honorable  in  the 
extreme  then,  and  beginning  in  these  new  days  to  return  to 


13 

its  pristine  nobility  —  they  were  called  "  Abolitionists." 
"  Pinckney,  and  Jefferson,  as  well  as  Jay,  and  Adams,  were 
abolitionists  in  name  as  well  as  in  fact."  (See  page  138,  July, 
1S02,  Pres.  Quar.  Review.)  Washington,  Madison,  Franklin, 
Patrick  Henry,  and  Hamilton,  with  those  above  mentioned, 
looked  upon  slavery  as  a  great  evil  —  as  endangering  the  safety 
and  stability  of  the  government.  That  was  the  sentiment 
of  all  the  colonies.  It  was  held  by  the  best  men,  both  slave- 
holders and  nonslaveholders,  that  the  institution  would  pass 
away  as  the  interests  of  the  various  colonies  should  become 
better  consolidated  under  the  constitution. 

6.  But  now  commenced  slowly  a  change  of  sentiment  in  the 
southern  States.  The  North,  true  to  the  wishes  and  ex- 
pectations of  our  fathers,  abolished  slavery.  Pennsylvania, 
Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut,  by  gradual  emancipation, 
and  Massachusetts,  by  immediate  abolition,  disposed  of  the 
institution  as  early  as  1780  ;  New  York,  in  1799 ;  and 
New  Jersey  in  1804.  The  South  however,  by  the  invention 
of  the  cotton-gin,  suddenly  found  the  value  of  her  main  pro- 
duct for  exportation  almost  doubled  in  value.  This  caused  a 
relative  advance  in  the  value  of  the  labor  of  the  slave,  in- 
creasing his  value,  both  for  toil  or  disposal  in  the  market. 
The  consciousness  that  they  were  departing  from  the  intention 
of  the  founders  of  the  government,  in  retaining  their  slaves, 
made  them  sensitive.  The  increase  of  the  political  power 
cast  into  their  hands  by  the  three-fifths  rule,  resulting  from 
the  natural  increase  of  their  slaves  —  the  greatly  enhanced 
value  of  their  persons  and  their  labor,  rose  to  a  great  and  a 
victorious  temptation  —  they  could  not  put  away  slavery 
without  trouble,  expense,  and  great  loss,  and  they  deter- 
mined to  keep  it ;  and,  as  a  natural  consequence,  to  extend  it, 
to  still  more  enhance  its  value  by  getting  lands  cheap. 

In  1804  the  United  States  became  possessor  of  the  Lou- 
isiana Territory,  by  purchase  from  France;  a  vast  tract, 


14 

containing  what  are  now  the  States  of  Louisiana,  Arkansas, 
Missouri,  Iowa,  Minnesota  in  part,  and  Kansas,  and  the  terri- 
tories known  as  Indian,  Nebraska,  Dakotah,  Washington,  and 
Columbia.  Instead  of  confining  slavery,  as  their  fathers  had 
in  1787,  to  its  former  limits,  and  consecrating  this  new  soil 
(the  first  ever  owned  by  us  west  of  the  Mississippi)  to  free- 
dom, they  cut  out  of  it  the  State  of  Louisiana,  and  in  1804 
when  the  last  northern  colony,  New  Jersey  abolished  slavery 
the  South  made  her  first  step  in  extension  of  slavery  upon 
new  soil.  Seven  years  later,  in  1810.  the  United  States 
forced  from  Spain  that  part  of  old  "  Florida  "  on  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  between  the  Pearl  and  the  Perdido  rivers  :  this  also 
was  offered  up  to  slavery.  Eleven  years  later  and  Missouri 
applied  for  admission  into  the  Union.  The  nation,  alarmed 
at  the  departure  of  the  South  from  the  intention  at  the  adop- 
tion of  the  constitution,  opposed  her  admission  with  a  slave 
constitution.  The  Union  was  at  the  point  of  dissolution. 
Henry  Clay  brought  forward  the  Missouri  compromise,  which 
was  in  effect  this:  let  us  have  Missouri,  Arkansas,  and  the 
Indian  territory  (as  now  on  our  maps)  and  you  may  have  the 
rest.  The  result  of  the  compromise  was  simply  this  :  the 
South  took  the  territory  they  asked  for,  gave  a,  promise  to 
ask  for  no  more,  cajoled  the  nation  with  their  promise  for 
thirty-four  years,  then  broke  their  promise,  and  by  arson, 
rape,  pillage,  assassination,  organized  murder,  and  a  military 
suppression  of  the  rights  of  suffrage,  attempted  to  steal  Kansas 
and  Nebraska  in  1854,  '5,  and  '6.  No  man  can  compromise 
either  with  Satan  or  his  minions  and  expect  to  come  uncheated 
out  of  the  bargain.  In  1820  the  South,  by  the  gloved  hand 
of  the  Missouri  compromise,  obtained  Missouri,  Arkansas  and 
Indian  territory.  The  year  following,  the  United  States 
bought  the  present  State  of  Florida.  This  was  also  taken 
by  the  South.t 

In  J  845  Texas,  with  its  immense  territory — ALL  FREE  under 
poor  Mexico  —  was  annexed,  and  ALL  given  to  slavery.     But 

t  See  Appendix. 


15 

the  Mexican  war  followed  this  addition  for  the  comfort  of  sla- 
very, costing  the  nation  more  than  £200. 000,000,  and  resulting 
in  the  further  acquisition  by  the  United  States  of  New  Mexico, 
•ii,  and  the  Californias.  The  South  made  a  desperate 
attempt  to  debauch  California  into  slavery  ;  failing  in  that, 
tried  to  divide  it  into  two  States;  and  failing  there,  tried  to 
produce  discontent,  and  a  secession  of  the  western  slope  from 
the  United  States.  When  the  Mexican  war  commenced  and 
Texas  was  annexed,  the  nation  became  roused  to  greater  vig- 
ilance. New  Mexico,  Utah,  and  California  had  a  new  law 
respecting  admission  applied  to  them  ;  a  law  made  to  favor  the 
South.  They  tried  the  plan  and  failed  in  California.  Kansas 
and  Nebraska  were  to  be  settled  next,  but  the  Missouri  com- 
promise, in  those  same  glorious  words  of  Jefferson,  in  the 
North-West  Ordinance  of  1787,  stood  in  the  way,  that  forever 
prohibited  slavery.  "  We  gave  the  pledge,"  said  the  South 
with  unblushing  effrontery,  "but  we  will  not  keep  it;'1  and  they 
broke  ihc  Missouri  compromise.  Thousands  of  clergy,  and  tens 
of  thousands  of  Christians  sent  in  their  sad  and  indignant  pro- 
test against  this  great  breach  of  national  faith,  only  to  receive 
in  reply  Insult  and  indignity,  and  billingsgate  fit  only  for  hell. 
The  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  passed,  and  was  set  up  upon  the 
ruins  of  a  nation's  faith  ;  it  was  passed  and  had  its  birth  in  a 
most  stupendous  crime. 

Now,  as  in  Utah  and  California,  the  people  were  to  move  in, 
and  say  by  the  ballot  whether  it  should  be  free  or  slave.  But 
the  oath-breaking  South  in  November,  1854,  the  sixth  month 
after  the  passage  of  that  bill,  sent  about  three  thousand  armed 
men  non-resident  of  the  State,  who  took  possession  of  the  polls, 
and  elected  General  Whitfield,  a  southern  man,  as  delegate 
to  Congress.  I  was  at  that  election  and  knew  many  of  the 
men  who  voted ;  also  Whitfield  himself,  who  was  present  at 
Leavenworth  and  made  a  speech  on  the  occasion.  In  April, 
1S55,  ten  thousand  armed  men  invaded  Kansas,  and  elected 
an  entire  territorial  legislature.  I  was  present  at  the  election 


16 

—  the  polls  being  on  a  lot  owned  by  an  elder,  and  in  a  store 
owned  by  a  deacon  of  my  own  church.  I  knew  the  four 
J  uclges  of  the  election  —  one  compelled  to  resign  his  seat  or 
be  murdered  on  the  spot.  I  was  invited  to  vote.  I  took  the 
poll  book,  and  turned  the  pages,  where  in  one  day  more  than 
nine  hundred  illegal  voters  had  had  their  names  recorded. 

And  that  was  not  enough  !  The  South  had  elected  a  dele- 
gate to  Congress  and  a  legislature,  by  invasion  and  the  viola- 
tion of  the  ballot  box.  That  delegate  conspired  with  the  south- 
ern Congressmen.  That  legislature  passed  laws  against  free 
speech  and  reading  books  or  papers  touching  in  any  manner 
on  slavery,  which  would  prevent  even  the  reading  of  the 
Bible  —  with  the  death  penalty  frequently  interspersed  in  its 
enactments.  So  afraid  were  they  still  to  stand  by  the  issue 
of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  that  they  collected  through  the 
South  arms,  men,  and  money,  and  commenced  a  civil  war  to 
exterminate  the  free  settlers.  The  history  you  well  know. 
The  nation  was  aroused  to  its  danger,  and  not  only  the  party 
which  opposed  the  encroachments  of  the  South,  but  a  large 
wing  of  the  party  which  had  always  acted  with  them,  under 
the  lead  of  Mr.  Douglas,  now  repentant  for  the  evil  he  had 
done,  came  out  boldly  and  said  :  "  You  shall  encroach  no 
further." 

The  domineering,  faithless  and  tyrannical  south  would  listen 
not  to  Mr.  Douglas,  much  less  to  the  other  party ;  and  by  a 
base  conspiracy  for  years  perfecting,  by  the  connivance  of  an 
imbecile  and  traitorous  executive,  SHE  OPENED  WAR  upon  the 
constitution,  the  liberties  and  the  government  of  this  country. 

She  seized  upon  not  only  her  original  territory,  but  taking 
all  she  could  grasp  of  that  which  we  had  acquired  by  pur- 
chase, for  which  the  north  had  paid  the  most  money,  all 
obtained  by  war,  for  which  the  north  had  done  the  most 
fighting,  all  obtained  by  her  most  infamous  falsehood.  She 
concluded  that  she  had  made  all  she  could  out  of  the  north, 
and,  as  freedom  is  always  obnoxious  to  tyranny,  after  eighty 


17 

years  of  attempted  living  together,  the  south  notified  the 
world  that  she  had  determined  to  set  up  an  establishment  of 
her  0 //•/>,  and  scorning  to  take  mere  unimproved  lands  she 
laid  hold  of  all  the  permanent  fixtures,  forts,  arsenals,  dock- 
yards and  vessels,  and  all  the  private  property  belonging  to 
the  government,  and  to  get  their  possession  began  by  ejecting 
from  Sumter  the  agents  of  the  government,  and  the  war 
commenced  in  earnest.  To  one  truly  acquainted  with  the 
history  of  his  country  the  remarks  that  "  this  war  was  a  need- 
less one,  and  could  have  been  averted  by  the  north,"  and  those 
others  which  lament  "  the  encroachments  of  the  north  upon  the 
south,"  are  the  sure  indices  of  treason,  or  are  but  as  the  bub- 
lings  of  an  infant  of  days,  or  the  incoherences  of  the  insane. 
No,  my  hearers,  be  not  deceived  ;  it  is  the  inexorable  logic  of 
events  —  the  irrefragihle  sequence  of  sin.  God's  divine  pur- 
poses will  be  fulfilled,  and  His  justice  will  not  always  slumber ; 
and  He  it  is  who  hath  put  this  nation  in  the  furnace,  and  is 
heaping  coals  upon  it ;  who  hath  it  now  in  His  mortar,  and 
is  sorely  bruising  it  with  His  pestle. 

I  have  truthfully  showed  you  the  history  of  slavery  in  its 
national  growth,  extension  and  faithlessness.  God  brought 
slavery  to  this  land — why,  we  know  not.  But  as  the  nation 
resisted  and  could  not  stay  its  introduction,  as  God  has  by 
natural  means  increased  it,  and  no  opposition  could  prevent 
it,  so  I  believe  that  God  now  designs  its  downfall  and  removal : 
and  as  easily  the  infant's  hand  could  cause  Niagara's  flood  to 
ascend  its  fall ;  as  any  party  of  men  to  stay  the  work  of  God. 
You  all  know  the  history  of  the  war ;  the  providence  of  God 
in  the  three  nominating  conventions  ;  the  unexpected  nomina- 
tion of  Abraham  Lincoln;  the  request  of  the  President  for  the 
prayer  of  the  nation  for  guidance  and  light ;  his  patience,  his 
honesty,  his  cautious  judgment,  his  long  deliberation.  Now, 
after  so  protracted  a  war,  so  great  expenditure,  such  loss  of 
health  and  limbs  and  life,  such  wide-spread  woe  around  him, 
with  the  wisest  counsellors  on  both  sides  of  the  question, 


18 

despite  his  own  unwillingness,  with  millions  of  prayers  daily 
ascending  for  him,  he  has  issued  the  proclamation  declaring 
freedom  to  the  slaves  in  all  the  States  in  rebellion  on  January 
1st  next.  How  foolish  to  hear  drunken  men,  upstart  boys, 
and  conceited  politicians  of  shallow  brains  denounce  and 
threaten  to  oppose  the  proclamation  ;  it  is  none  of  their  business. 
A  merciful  Heaven  has  entrusted  to  none  of  them  either  the 
responsibility  of  its  announcement,  or  the  power  of  its  execu- 
tion. The  God  who  compels  the  wicked  to  work  His  will, 
who  while  He  scourges  one  nation  for  their  sins  lifts  another 
from  the  lowest  thraldom  and  debasement  to  liberty  and  joy  ; 
who  among  the  kings  of  the  earth  setteth  up  one  and  putteth 
down  another,  and  holds  the  hearts  of  men  in  his  hands,  He, 
He  hath  given  to  us  this  proclamation. 

How  much  may  directly  result  from  the  proclamation  itself 
no  one  can  tell.  Of  itself  it  opens  questions  of  a  legal 
nature  which  can  never  be  closed,  and  where  the  doubt  will 
in  every  case  inure  to  the  benefit  of  freedom  ;  it  brings  new 
social  influences  into  action  through  the  slave  States ;  it 
awakens  doubt  in  the  slave's  mind  whether,  as  he  has  been 
told  so  often  on  Sunday,  it  is  God's  decree  that  he  and  his 
children  shall  forever  remain  in  slavery ;  it  lifts  all  the  free 
whites  a  long  step  in  their  position  as  men ;  it  sets  all  good 
men  at  least  in  a  profound  study  and  devisement  in  reference 
to  the  future;  it  has  already  caused  more  serious  thought 
about  actual  abolition  and  its  possibilities,  duties,  methods 
and  consequences,  than  an  hundred  years  such  as  the  one  pre- 
ceding the  war.  The  sanguine  philanthropist  had  hoped  it 
might  end  by  economic  causes  in  an  hundred  years ;  to-day 
no  man  can  tell  but  three  months  may  see  the  whole  fabric  a 
mass  of  ruins.  We  know  not  what  difficulties  may  arise, 
what  perplexities  and  complications  may  occur,  but  we  know 
this:  no  tangle  is  so  intricate  but  God  can  unloose  it,  no 
knot  so  hard  but  He  can  cut  it.  The  God  who  in  one  year 
and  an  half  has  brought  a  nation  from  peace  and  complicity 


19 

with  slavery  into  this  war,  into  a  general  loathing  of  the 
abominable  thing,  into  a  national  approval  of  the  proposition 
of  compensated  emancipation  ;  and  has  made  the  army  and 
the  navy,  and  almost  the  entire  church  a  unit  in  the  approval 
of  this  proclamation,  can  lead  the  people  to  receive  with 
gladness  every  new  development  he  may  show  them,  and 
strengthen  their  faith  when  they  cannot  walk  by  sight. 

Let  us  well  remember  that  when  God  had  determined  to 
bring  his  ancient  people  out  from  their  Egyptian  bondage,  the 
opposition  of  the  tyrannical  and  stubborn  monarch  did  not 
prevent  the  accomplishment  of  God's  design,  but  only  served 
to  bring  ruin  upon  his  own  nation.  It  was  an  immense  price 
that  God  exacted  when  he  would  make  them  free ;  it  was  a 
terrible  example  that  God  gave  of  the  value  He  sets  upon 
oppressed  humanity.  Not  only  in  one  night  was  their  a  dead 
man,  in  every  family  of  the  Egyptians,  and  he  the  chief  son, 
but  a  few  days  later,  when  at  the  Red  sea  Israel  saw  250,000 
of  her  foes  miserably  perish.  For  every  one  of  600,000  adult 
males  that  stood  upon  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Red  sea  and 
praised  God,  there  had  died  in  that  night  of  terror,  or  there 
had  sunk  like  stone  in  the  engulphing  waters,  one  adult  male 
Egyptian.  God  exchanged  the  life  of  one  man,  and  he  of  the 
very  best,  for  the  freedom  of  one  and  he  despised  and  degraded. 

In  our  own  civil  war,  we  have,  on  the  two  sides  in  the 
conflict,  lost  more  than  250,000  lives.  More  than  250,000 
constitutions  have  been  broken  and  health  permanently  im- 
paired, and  an  amount  of  treasure  paid  almost  incalculable. 
How  much  longer  will  we  compel  the  bondmen  to  wear  his 
chains  ?  how  much  longer  oppose  the  God  of  freedom  ? 

If,  as  we  are  arguing,  God's  time  has  come,  he  can,  if  we 
are  stubborn  and  unyielding,  by  as  dear  a  price — a  life  of  a 
white  American  citizen — paid  for  the  freedom  of  each  dark 
colored  slave,  bring  them  freedom  and  deliverance ! 

Shall  we  contend  with  Him,  or  bow  submissive  to  his  evi- 
dent providence  ? 


20 

But  the  proclamation  is  not  mere  paper.  The  finest  navy 
in  the  world,  the  noblest  and  best  appointed  army  on  earth, 
are  prepared  and  waiting  only  the  word  to  give  it  effect.  It 
may  be  years  before  all  is  quiet  and  all  the  new  relations  that 
shall  arise  will  be  consolidated  ;  but  I  believe,  from  the  effects 
of  this  army  and  navy  and  proclamation,  slavery  can  never 
escape  —  can  never  recover.  It  is  a  monster  of  hideous  and 
gigantic  proportions,  and  may  be  long  in  dying,  but  die  it 
must.  Home  lost  her  very  nationality  and  tongue,  and  with 
her  sank  her  60,000,000  of  slaves. 

7.  Slavery  in  the  United  States  is  different  from  that  of  any 
other  known  nation,  and  thus  becomes  more  degrading  and 
dangerous  than  any  other. 

(a.)  The  slavery  of  the  ancients  did  not  regard  color;  they 
were  of  all  nationalities  ;  were  prisoners  of  war,  or  captives 
taken  expressly  for  slaves.  It  was  therefore  easier  for  slaves 
to  rise  in  the  scale  of  character  and  position,  and  to  be  adopt- 
ed by  their  masters  as  companions  and  friends. 

(b.)  The  ancients  prided  themselves  upon  the  abilities  and 
learning  of  their  slaves.  Many  were  poets,  orators,  painters, 
sculptors,  professors,  musicians,  literary  men ;  the  masters 
sometimes  being  both  pupils  and  patrons  to  their  own  slaves. 
But  in  this  land  of  quick  intellect,  of  nervous  energy,  it  is 
dangerous  to  permit  the  slaves  to  know  too  much :  there  are 
laws  which  forbid  any  one  teaching  him  to  read  or  write.  I 
very  innocently,  for  seven  months,  taught  a  school  of  eight 
slaves  at  my  house,  evenings,  with  the  consent  of  their  mas- 
ters, according  to  the  law  of  1820.  I  learned  that  the  law 
of  1820  was  changed  for  another  in  1847,  which  forbid  any 
one  to  teach  them,  and  my  school  stopped  ;  but  I  am  owing 
to  the  State  of  Missouri,  under  that  law  of  1847,  $740,000  of 
fine,  and  740  years  in  the  county  jail  of  Platte  county, 
(recently  burned  by  the  rebels,)  for  simply  trying  to  teach 
eight  slaves  to  read  the  Bible  and  learn  of  Christ,  the  Re- 
deemer ! 


21 

(c.)  It  is  a  Protestant  Christian  country,  and  the  one  Chris- 
tian holds  his  fellow  Christian,  and  buys  and  sells  "  the 
temple  of  the  living  God  "  as  chattels ;  and  if  I  mistake  not, 
this  is  the  only  Protestant  nation,  the  only  one  that  has  an 
open  Bible,  which  retains  slavery. 

(d.)  It  is  made  the  standard  of  gentility  and  social  privilege, 
degrading  the  poor  white  man  to  a  level  akin  to  that  of  slaves, 
and  giving  him  no  access  to  the  society  of  slaveholders  until  he 
will  consent  to  their  ways,  and  become  an  abettor  and  sharer 
of  their  crimes.  How  degrading !  Neither  wealth,  intelli- 
gence, nor  character  can  give  a  man  standing,  but  he  must 
own  at  least  one  negro  to  be  respectable!  how  contemptible! 

(e.)  Slavery  gives  to  the  slaveholder  two  political  and 
oppressive  powers.  By  the  three-fifths  rule  the  owner  exerts 
the  same  power  as  one  who,  in  a  free  State,  could  coerce  the 
ballots  of  his  employees  :  he  therefore,  as  compared  with  his 
fellow-citizens,  has  unequal  and  greater  power  than  they; 
and  true  democracy  demands  equal  power  at  the  ballot-box 
for  each  citizen. 

(/.)  But  sadder  still,  it  violates  all  the  democratic  principle 
involved  in  the  ballot  itself.  Just  as  the  drunkard  goes  to  the 
polls,  and  in  pursuit  of  his  own  vile  appetite,  casts  a  ballot  that 
misrepresents  his  wife  and  children  and  dooms  them  to  want  and 
suffering,  so  the  slaveholder  forever  misrepresents  the  inte- 
rests of  the  slave,  and  seeks  so  to  use  his  legal  authority  as 
to  quench  the  last  spark  of  liberty  in  his  soul.  Such  are 
some  of  slavery's  peculiar  characteristics  in  this  intelligent, 
free,  democratic,  Protestant  and  Christian  land. 

8.  Slavery  presents  to  the  human  heart  the  strongest  earthly 
temptations,  and  gratifies  more  of  the  sinful  emotions  than  any 
other  wickedness. 

(a.)  The  love  of  idleness  and  ease,  the  desire  to  be  waited 
upon  and  served.  It  produces  enervation  and  helplessness 


22 

in  the  man,  and  the  habit  grows  upon  him ;  but  nowhere  is 
the  otiosity  of  man's  nature  so  much  developed  and  enjoyed 
as  with  him  who  owns  chattel  slaves. 

(b.)  Covetousness  here  is  complete,  demanding  not  only  some- 
thing which  the  slave  has,  but  the  whole  man — body,  mind, 
faculties — and  all  he  may  transiently  or  permanently  possess, 
achieve  or  become;  and  then  demands  his  posterity  in  like 
manner. 

(c.)  Avarice  here  finds  play  so  full  that  the  only  point  to 
be  settled  by  the  master  is  this :  how  much  can  I  withhold 
from  him  of  aid? — how  much  can  I  exact  from  him  of  service 
without  impairing  his  ability  to  serve? 

(d.)  Dishonesty,  which  takes  without  consent  or  compensa- 
tion that  which  is  another's.  Not  like  the  thief,  or  highway- 
man, occasionally  abstracting  or  compelling  clisgorgement  of 
a  portion  of  the  man's  wealth,  slavery  robs  continually  and 
takes  all.  The  negro,  in  the  master's  hand,  becomes  but  a 
sheep,  on  whom  the  shears  are  applied  with  unceasing  and 
relentless  vigor. 

(e.)  The  pride  of  name,  as  possessed  of  wealth  and  servants. 
One  of  the  strongest  passions  of  the  heart  finds  a  deep  and 
peculiar  gratification  in  the  ownership  of  immortal  souls. 

( f.)  The  love  of  domination  and  tyranny,  found  in  every 
heart,  is  completely  met  by  slavery.  To  send,  or  call,  to 
bind,  to  scourge,  to  wreak  all  wrath  and  displeasure  on  a 
slave,  gluts  petty  tyranny  to  the  full. 

(g.)  There  comes  another  strand  in  this  cable  of  sin.  The 
love  of  lust,  and  the  reveling  of  an  unrestrained  licentiousness, 
an  influence  which  has  helped  sustain  slavery,  second  scarce 
to  avarice  itself. 

(h.)  The  aristocrat  in  man,  which  is  rewarded  by  place, 
honor  and  distinction,  by  those  in  league  with  him,  on  the 
ground  that  he  is  the  holder  and  owner  of  a  human  victim 
whom  he  is  continually  fleecing. 


23 

(/.)  The  political  ambition  engendered  and  sustained  by  the 
special,  but  unjust,  powers  delegated  to  him  as  a  slaveholder, 
constantly  increased  by  the  increase  of  his  slaves. 

It  has  seemed  strange  to  you  that  slavery  fights  so  fiercely 
in  this  contest  with  our  government.  WELL  IT  MAY.  Every 
man  who  is  a  slaveholder  from  choice  will  lose  with  his  slaves 
that  which  he  considers  next  to  his  own  life.  He  loses  ease, 
money,  tyranny,  pride,  lust,  privilege  in  society,  and  caste  in 
politics. 

From  suck  a,  bondage!  so  unprepared !  emerges  the  slave  a 
free  man  under  the  proclamation,  and  through  the  army. 
Where  shall  he  go  ?  what  shall  he  do  ?  . 

We  saw  last  Sabbath  that  Africa  was  his  true  and  best 
home  ;  shall  he  go  there  ?  How  shall  he  go  ?  who  will  give 
him  food  and  passage  ?  will  lead  him  to  port  and  embark 
him  ?  and  when  arrived  on  the  other  side,  who  furnish  a  home 
for  one  who  never  owned  one  here  ?  Who  instruct  him  in 
the  use  of  a  will  so  long  inactive  ?  who  make  him,  so  utterly 
dependent,  able  to  judge  and  rely  upon  himself?  Before 
answering  those  questions  another  rises.  It  may  be  for  the 
interest  of  the  black  race  to  go  to  Liberia,  but  is  it  for  the 
interest  of  (his  nation  for  them  to  go  ?  Bancroft  ISibfM9 

I  answer  without  a  hesitation :  pecuniarily  it  is  not,  morally 
it  is. 

Our  text  declares  that  the  honor  of  the  throne  depends 
upon  the  multitude  of  the  people,  and  that  the  weakness  of 
a  nation  lies  in  scarcity  of  population. 

The  wealth  of  any  nation  lies  not  in  its  lands  or  its  general 
improvements,  but  in  the  amount  of  available  productive 
force,  in  its  inhabitants ;  they  are  more  necessary  than  ma- 
chinery;  the  industry  and  intelligence  of  the  people  can  buy 
and  invent  machinery,  while  the  opposite  is  not  true.  The 
more  intelligent  and  industrious  a  man,  the  greater  his  value 
to  the  State  and  its  prosperity ;  the  greater  is  his  ability  to 


24 

add  to  its  productive  wealth— the  greater  his  ability  to  be  a 
consumer.  Now  the  mere  increase  of  the  number  of  such 
men  makes  a  community,  a  State,  a  nation,  self-reliant,  inde- 
pendent, honored  and  powerful.  When  the  slaves  are  set 
free  every  one  who  leaves  this  nation  diminishes  its  wealth  in 
two  ways :  there  is  one  producer  less,  there  is  one  consumer 
less  than  before.  Every  able  bodied  man  who  is  thoroughly 
industrious,  who  is  taken  from  this  nation,  is  an  annual  loss, 
taken  as  producer  and  consumer,  of  some  $500  per  annum. 
If  there  are  one  million  able  bodied  and  industrious  blacks 
male  and  female  among  the  slaves,  and  they  were  taken  away, 
it  would  be  to  the  public  aggregate  wealth  and  prosperity  a 
loss  of  nearly  if  not  quite  $500,000,000  every  year,  an  amount 
almost  as  large  as  our  entire  national  debt. 

But  another  consideration  forces  itself  upon  our  attention. 
God  has  settled  the  policy  of  the  United  States  for  at  least 
thirty  years  to  come  in  reference  to  a  question  that  has  agi- 
tated the  government  from  its  foundation.  The  south,  and 
their  northern  servants  in  the  interest  of  slavery,  have 
opposed  a  protective  tariff  and  repeatedly  defeated  it.  The 
war,  so  wickedly  commenced  by  the  south,  has  settled  that 
question  for  a  long  time  to  come ;  the  country  will  have  a 
high  tariff,  almost  a  prohibitory  one.  The  political  economist 
sees  from  afar  the  inevitable  result.  All  species  of  manu- 
factures will  spring  to  power  and  energy  through  this  whole 
country ;  all  the  lower  kinds  of  labor,  especially  agricultural 
will  become  more  valuable ;  the  negro  will  be  more  needed 
from  the  day  this  war  closes  than  ever  before,  as  a  laborer. 
He  now  is  so  important  that  the  south  is  impoverished  with- 
out his  labor — that  she  maintains  this  war  by  the  support 
she  wrenches  from  him.  If  the  slave  has  been  a  great  con. 
sumer  of  northern  manufactures,  far  more  will  the  4,000,000 
consume  when  free  men  and  receiving  ample  and  just  remu- 
neration for  their  labor.  This  is  another  of  God's  works, 
causing  the  nation  by  the  very  war  he  is  compelling  theni  to 


25 

wage,  (one  act  of  which  gives  freedom  to  the  oppressed,)  to 
lay  deep  and  strong  the  foundations  of  a  great  national  pros- 
perity; that  we  may  in  His  fear  have  the  means  to  do  our  duty 
to  the  race  by  whose  degradation  as  a  nation  we  have  been 
enabled  to  rise ;  and  on  whom  we  must  still  continue  when 
free  for  a  while  greatly  to  lean. 

But  I  hear  some  timid  one  exclaim :  "  We  shall  be  overrun 
with  blacks  at  the  north,  they  will  destroy  the  value  of  labor 
by  their  competition."  The  fear  is  ridiculous  arid  groundless. 
The  skin  of  the  black  man,  both  absorbing  and  radiating  heat 
and  cold,  as  that  of  the  white  man  cannot,  tells  us  that  he 
belongs  in  a  warm  climate,  and  without  knowing  the  reason, 
obstacles  removed,  he  gravitates  to  hot  climates  with  even 
temperatures. 

But  the  census  proves  it  false  in  point  of  fact. 

More  than  50,000  slaves  were  set  free  in  the  north  more 
than  sixty  years  ago ;  and  yet  with  all  the  emigration  from  the 
slave  states  since  the  government  was  founded  there  were  in  all 
the  northern  states  but  1S5,  296  free  blacks  in  1850;  while  the 
same  year  there  were  in  the  slave  states  248,199,  being  an 
excess  of  62,000  in  the  slave  states.  Once  set  the  slaves  free 
and  there  might  be,  it  is  true,  an  influx  for  a  few  months  or 
years,  until  they  were  sure  they  could  return  and  be  cer- 
tainly free,  when  the  reflux  tide  would  bear  back  to  the  south 
with  it  more  than  half  of  those  now  in  the  northern  states. 

But  another  fears  that  there  will  take  place,  a  general 
amalgamation  of  the  races. 

Banish  that  fear ;  do  not  insult  a  race  already  so  degraded, 
robbed  and  oppressed.  I  spurn,  for  them,  your  assumption 
of  a  desire  on  their  part  to  commingle  bloods  with  the  whites. 
The  mulattoes  are  the  products  of  black  mothers,  and  for 
every  one  there  has  been  an  approach  by  a  white  man,  either 
with  his  power  as  a  despot  who  could  not  be  resisted ;  and 
against  whom  the  law  gives  no  protection  to  religion  and 

chastity ;  or  by  the  flattery  of  a  higher  race ;  or  by  the  bribe 
4 


26 

of  wealth  offered  to  poverty  and  ignorance.  I  say  in  every 
case  the  desire  and  the  petition  has  come  from  the  white  race- 
Shame  on  our  color ! 

You  fear  amalgamation !  The  slaves  of  America  taunt  each 
other  in  the  bitterest  terms,  when  they  apply  the  words 
"  yellow  man,"  and  "  yellow  woman,"  and  awake  the  deep- 
est resentment.  They  are  prouder  of  pure  black  blood 
than  the  whites  are  of  theirs.  The  census  will  tell  you  a 
little  story  on  that  point.  Go  to  the  slave  States  and  you 
will  find,  in  1850,  246,656  mulattoes  —  sons  and  daughters  of 
the  chivalry  of  the  South  —  for  the  slaves  are  taught  to  look 
with  contempt  on  the  poor  white  man.  There  were  also 
in  the  slave  States,  1 02,255  more  mulattoes,  who  were  free  ; 
making  a  total  of  mulattos,  in  the  slave  States,  348,911. 
There  was  in  1850,  in  the  slave  States,  one  mulatto  to  every 
3§  white  men  over  twenty-one  years  old. 

In  the  whole  North  there  were  but  56,840  mulattoes,  being 
but  one  to  each  sixty  white  men  over  twenty-one  years  of 
age. 

Talk  of  amalgamation  !  In  the  southern  States,  in  1850, 
there  was  one  mulatto  for  each  slave  holder  in  the  United 
States,  and  1,400  to  spare.  Slavery !  SLAVERY  is  amalgama- 
tion; it  is  lust;  it  cries  to  Heaven  for  worse  than  Sodom's 
vengeance ;  it  ravishes  chastity ;  it  tramples  on  religion.  Is 
there  a  Christian,  a  patriot,  a  human  being,  whose  heart  lies 
cold  and  unrejoiced  when  he  hears  God's  voice  speaking 
deliverance  ? 

But  emancipation  will  make  one  level  of  manhood  in  the 
southern  States,  instead  of  three.  The  free  blacks  can  choose, 
to  a  great  extent,  their  own  employers,  or  employ  them- 
selves. The  enterprising  or  consciencious  whites,  too  pure, 
or  too  poor,  to  become  slaveholders,  can  become  employers. 
There  is  as  much  land  to  be  cultivated  as  before ;  it  is  just  as 
productive ;  a  greater  demand  than  ever  before  will  exist  for 
those  products  at  the  close  of  the  war.  Why  then  should 
they  not  remain  ? 


27 

But  some  say:  You  rob  and  impoverish  the  347,553  slave- 
holders. Well,  if  we  do,  they  lose  only  stolen  property  that 
they  had  in  possession  !  If  they  lose  4,000,000  of  slaves, 
there  are  4,000,000  who  each  receive  the  present  of  a  free- 
man. If  the  aristocratic,  tyrannous  traitors  to  God,  human- 
ity, and  conscience,  lose  a  little  wealth,  4,000,000  are  raised 
from  —  what  shall  I  say  ?  —  to  a  position  below  that  of  the 
poorest  man  you  ever  saw,  and  then  are  raised  immeasurably 
high  !  — to  the  ownership  of  his  own  body,  but  with  a  mind 
blurred,  and  held  in  darkness  by  wicked  legal  oppressions. 
If  one  half  of  each  face  in  the  nation  should  weep  and  be- 
moan the  slaveholder's  loss  ;  why,  the  other  half  of  each  face 
should  be  radiant  with  joy,  and  bless  God,  at  the  black  man's 
gain. 

But  one  thing  of  great  importance  is  secured.  That  annual 
increase  of  205  slaves  each  day,  or  1,435  each  week,  or  74,000 
each  year  is  stopped.  They  become  free  !  Ought  we  not  to 
rejoice  in  all  God's  wonderful  ways,  bless  him  for  them,  and 
ask  him  to  make  them  a  perfect  end  ? 

You  remember  the  arguments  of  last  week  for  the  emigra- 
tion of  the  colored  man  to  Liberia.*  Now  comes  their  place : 
IT  is  BETTER  for  the  black  race,  better  for  the  manhood  and  the 
morality  of  the  whites.  But  we  have  showed  we  cannot 
spare  them  now.  They  have  toiled  a  century  and  are  robbed 
of  their  gains  ;  they  have  nothing  with  which  to  go ;  they 
have  never  depended  on  themselves,  or  been  allowed  to  ;  they 
are  not  fit  to  go.  Liberia  is  not  strong  enough  to  bear  a  mil- 
lion unprepared  men  thrown  on  her  society  in  a  single  year. 
But  there  were  527,040  free  blacks  in  the  United  States  in 
1860.  Many  have  some  means  ;  all  can  get  away.  Many  of 
those  in  the  South  are  skillful  mechanics.  Let  us  every- 
where urge  them  to  go  first ;  give  them  generous  assistance  ; 
pray  for  them  ;  and  stimulate  them  by  the  highest  hopes  of 
usefulness  and  honor.  If  in  four  or  six  years  1,000,000  emi- 
grants can,  by  private  and  government  aid,  be  placed  in 

*  See  Appwadix. 


28 

Africa,  a  nation  great,  powerful,  industrious  is  established, 
and  the  national  causes  of  attraction  will  each  year  increase, 
drawing  from  the  American  continent  the  last  remnant  of  the 
race,  while  their  places  would  gradually  be  filled  by  other 
laborers.  And  this  plan  is  perfectly  feasible.  In  1856,  '57, 
58,  by  ordinary  causes  of  emigration,  550,000  foreigners 
came  to  this  country  and  found  a  home,  with  no  national  aid, 
and  paying  their  own  charges.  Three  hundred  and  forty 
thousand  emigrants  left  the  United  Kingdom  in  1854.  In 
forty-three  years,  4,500,000  had  left.  In  thirty-six  years, 
ending  December  31,  1855,  4,212,624  had  emigrated  to  this 
country,  and  about  a  million  more  have  come  since. 

Oh,  it  will  be  a  cause  of  thanksgiving  for  all  Africa, — 
America, — the  world,  if  by  this  war,  God  having  cradled  that 
strange  nation  in  our  midst,  in  slavery,  shall  set  it  free; 
making  us  the  unwilling  patron,  and  the  slaves  the  instru- 
ment of  Christianizing  that  benighted  continent. 

What  then  becomes  us  as  citizens  to  do.  Sustain  the  govern- 
ment which  God  has  chosen  for  this  very  crisis  ;  PRESS  ON  THIS 
WAR  against  treason  and  every  crime ;  and  let  every  man,  pray- 
ing for  the  army  and  the  government,  in  his  place,  cheerfully 
bearing  every  burden  God  makes  it  his  part  to  bear,  stand  and 
behold  the  salvation  of  our  God. 

And  let  his  name  have  endless  praise.     Amen,  and  Amen. 


APPENDIX. 


*  On  the  Sabbath  preceding  that  upon  which  this  discourse  was 
delivered,  the  pastor  preached  a  sermon  examining  the  intellectual, 
the  social  and  the  moral  condition  of  the  free  black  men  in  the 
United  States,  and  the  obstacles  to  their  progress  and  elevation  in 
this  country.  He  examined  the  same  points  in  view  of  a  residence 
in  Liberia,  and  set  forth  the  influence,  political  and  religious,  which 
that  infant  republic  has  already  exerted  upon  Africa  and  her  tribes. 
He  noticed  the  fact  that  Liberia  had  done  more  for  thirty  years 
past  for  the  direct  suppression  of  the  slave  trade  than  any  other 
nation.  Also  made  statements  in  reference  to  the  high  literary  and 
professional  institutions  within  a  year  past  opened  in  Liberia  and 
founded  by  the  benevolence  of  American  citizens. 

The  opportunities  of  unlimited  acquisitions  of  territory  as  the 
republic  might  desire  expansion ;  the  rapid  increase  of  popula- 
tion which  she  might  receive  from  systematic  and  governmental 
colonization ;  and  the  political  and  religious  future  of  that  nation 
were  portrayed ;  and  this  sermon  was  designed  but  a  sequel  to  the 
other,  to  show  that  God  brought  them  here,  has  kept  them  here, 
and  will  remove  them  to  Africa  again. 

f  By  oversight  hi  the  summation  of  the  graspings  of  the  slave 
power  for  territory,  I  omitted  one  of  the  highest  importance.  In  the 
year  1836,  by  an  act  of  congress,  a  triangular  piece  of  land,  known 
as  the  "  half  breed  triangle,"  or  the  "  Platte  Purchase,"  was  cut  out 
of  the  Nebraska  territory  and  added  to  the  State  of  Missouri. 
The  triangle  was  one  hundred  and  four  miles  long  north  and  south, 
and  sixty  miles  across  at  the  north  end.  It  was  land  that  the 
Missouri  compromise  said  should  never  have  a  slave  on  it.  Six- 
teen years  after  the  compromise  passed,  it  was  thus  broken  in  cold 
blood  by  the  south,  and  the  Missouri  compromise  still  unrepealed 
in  1850,  that  triangle  presented  this  front  for  slavery — it  was 
divided  into  six  counties : 


30 


Free. 


Slave. 


Total. 


Atchison,    1,648  30  1,678 

ISTodaway, 2,048  70  2,118 

Holt, 3,828  127  3,955 

Andrew,   8,773  661  9,434 

Buchanan, , 12,074  902  12,976 

Platte, 14,131  2,798  16,929 

Totals, 42,502     4,588       47>090 

In  fourteen  short  years  the  south  had  planted  on  that  stolen 
triangle  almost  5,000  slaves.  I  lived  in  Platte  county — free  soil 
under  the  Missouri  compromise,  but  under  the  treachery  of  the 
south  slave  territory  at  the  same  hour ;  and  there  under  two  acts, 
neither  repealed,  both  passed  by  the  south,  and  for  the  south's 
benefit,  an  American  citizen,  I  for  five  and  a  half  years  saw  the 
deformities  and  endured  the  outrages  of  American  slavery. 


• 


